This invention relates to overcoat apparatus associated with a can decorating machine.
At the present time, one-piece can body members are conventionally decorated with ink images on relatively high speed can decorator machines operating at speeds of 1000 or more cans per minute. It is often desirable to apply a lacquer overcoat after the can body has been decorated. In the past, lacquer overcoats have been applied by separate coating machines and by coating apparatus mounted on the decorator machine. A major problem in application of lacquer overcoats is controlling and maintaining the amount and uniformity of application of the lacquer to the can body over wet ink images thereon so as to avoid smearing of the ink images and enabling subsequent curing in conventional oven curing systems. It will be apparent that a can manufacturer having a can manufacturing line capable of producing millions of cans per day and billions of cans per year cannot tolerate loss of production for any significant period of time. If the decorating and/or coating and/or curing system fail to operate properly, there can be tremendous production losses resulting from down time time on the line or scrapping of poorly decorated cans.
In general, the present invention comprises apparatus for decorating cans or the like having: a mandrel wheel means having a plurality of circumferentially spaced rotatable mandrel means for carrying cans in a generally circular path of movement past inking means for applying ink images to the peripheral surfaces of the cans; an applicator roll means located next adjacent and downstream of said inking means and being engageable with the peripheral surfaces of the cans for applying a coating over the ink images on the peripheral surfaces of the cans; a pre-spin wheel means operatively associated with said applicator roll means and being engageable with said rotatable mandrel means before said applicator roll means engages the peripheral surfaces of the cans for causing rotation of said rotatable mandrel means prior to engagement of said applicator roll means with the peripheral surfaces of the cans; a single engraved meter roll means mounted in juxtaposition to and engaging said applicator roll means for applying predetermined solvents of coating material to said applicator roll means; a fountain means having a reservoir for holding a quantity of the coating material and metering blade means operably associated with said meter roll means for applying a predetermined quantity of coating material to said meter roll means; drive means operably connected to said mandrel wheel means and said applicator roll means and said pre-spin wheel means and said meter roll means for causing synchronized rotation thereof; a common movable support means for supporting said applicator roll means and said pre-spin wheel means and said meter roll means and said fountain means for movement between an operational position adjacent said mandrel wheel means whereat said applicator roll means engages the peripheral surfaces of the cans and an inoperative position whereat said applicator roll means is spaced from the peripheral surfaces of the cans; actuating means operably associated with said common movable support means for selectively moving said common movable support means between the operative position and the inoperative position; an applicator roll pressure adjustment means operably associated with said common movable support means for causing variable movement thereof in the operative position whereby the position and engaging pressure of said applicator roll means relative to the cans is selectively variably adjustable; a meter roll pressure adjustment means mounted on said common movable support means and being operably associated with said meter roll means for selectively variably adjusting the position and engaging pressure of said meter roll means with said applicator roll means; fountain adjustment means mounted on said common movable support means and being operably associated with said fountain means for selectively variably adjusting the position of said fountain means relative to said meter roll means to control the amount and distribution of coating material transferred from said fountain means to said meter roll means; and support adjustment means operatively associated with said common movable support means for selectively variably adjusting the axis of rotation of said applicator roll means relative to the axis of rotation of said mandrel means to maintain substantial parallelism therebetween.